New Apartments in Brooklyn to Begin Leasing

Leasing will begin later this summer at 50 North 5th St., a newly constructed 229-unit rental property in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Mack Real Estate Capital Group and Urban Development Partners developed the project, which was formerly known as 204 Wythe Ave.

New York—Leasing will begin later this summer at 50 North 5th St., a newly constructed 229-unit rental property in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn. Mack Real Estate Capital Group and Urban Development Partners developed the project, which was formerly known as 204 Wythe Ave.

The property includes a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, some of which feature private terraces. It also includes basketball court, bocce ball court, two-floor gym, billiard room and courtyard with a waterfall. The building’s interiors were designed by a firm based out of Williamsburg, CLO-TH Interiors, whose previous work includes the Ogden Hotel in Midtown and Reade57, a condominium in Tribeca, among others.

Forty-six of the property’s units will be affordable, and 12 of those units will be included in the city’s Sandy preference, the goal of which is to relocate city residents displaced by last year’s hurricane. A lottery managed by Area Property Partners and overseen by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development will determine who will live in the affordable units; households earning as much as 60 percent of area median income qualify for them.

Williamsburg is one of the more expensive areas in Brooklyn to rent an apartment. According to residential real estate specialist MNS, the average rent for a one-bedroom unit in the neighborhood was just over $3,000 in May, which is comparable with the Dumbo area (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) and Brooklyn Heights, and more than Park Slope.

Still, as a whole, Brooklyn is a popular refuge from Manhattan, where rents are generally higher. Douglas Elliman, in its report for May, says that there were 479 new rentals in Brooklyn during May, up 23.5 percent from the same month a year ago. The jump in “tenant churn” reflects resistance to price increases offered at lease renewal as tenants sought out affordability, the report noted.